The Social Life of Pots

Glaze Wares and Cultural Dynamics in the Southwest, AD 1250-1680

Judith A. Habicht-Mauche, Suzanne L. Eckert, Deborah L. Huntley

• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9780816553556, 9780816524570
• eBook ISBN: 9780816551064
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

The demographic upheavals that altered the social landscape of the Southwest from the thirteenth through the seventeenth centuries forced peoples from diverse backgrounds to literally remake their worlds—transformations in community, identity, and power that are only beginning to be understood through innovations in decorated ceramics. In addition to aesthetic changes that included new color schemes, new painting techniques, alterations in design, and a greater emphasis on iconographic imagery, some of the wares reflect a new production efficiency resulting from more specialized household and community-based industries. Also, they were traded over longer distances and were used more often in public ceremonies than earlier ceramic types.

Through the study of glaze-painted pottery, archaeologists are beginning to understand that pots had "social lives" in this changing world and that careful reconstruction of the social lives of pots can help us understand the social lives of Puebloan peoples. In this book, fifteen contributors apply a wide range of technological and stylistic analysis techniques to pottery of the Rio Grande and Western Pueblo areas to show what it reveals about inter- and intra-community dynamics, work groups, migration, trade, and ideology in the precontact and early postcontact Puebloan world.

The contributors report on research conducted throughout the glaze producing areas of the Southwest and cover the full historical range of glaze ware production. Utilizing a variety of techniques—continued typological analyses, optical petrography, instrumental neutron activation analysis, X-ray microprobe analysis, and inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy—they develop broader frameworks for examining the changing role of these ceramics in social dynamics. By tracing the circulation and exchange of specialized knowledge, raw materials, and the pots themselves via social networks of varying size, they show how glaze ware technology, production, exchange, and reflected a variety of dynamic historical and social processes.

Through this material evidence, the contributors reveal that technological and aesthetic innovations were deliberately manipulated and disseminated to actively construct "communities of practice" that cut across language and settlement groups. The Social Life of Pots offers a wealth of new data from this crucial period of prehistory and is an important baseline for future work in this area.
 
Contributors
Patricia Capone
Linda S. Cordell
Suzanne L. Eckert
Thomas R. Fenn
Judith A. Habicht-Mauche
Cynthia L Herhahn
Maren Hopkins
Deborah L. Huntley
Toni S. Laumbach
Kathryn Leonard
Barbara J. Mills
Kit Nelson
Gregson Schachner
Miriam T. Stark
Scott Van Keuren

Table of contents

• Contents
• Preface
• 1. The Social History of Southwestern Glaze Wares | Judith A. Habicht-Mauche
• 2. Glaze Ware Technology, the Social Lives of Pots, and Communities of Practice in the Late Prehistoric Southwest | Miriam T. Stark
• 3. The Production and Distribution of Glaze-Painted Pottery in the Pueblo Southwest: A Synthesis | Suzanne L. Eckert
• 4. The Social Contexts of Glaze Paint Ceramic Production and Consumption in the Silver Creek Area | Thomas R. Fenn, Barbara J. Mills, and Maren Hopkins
• 5. Decorating Glaze-Painted Pottery in East-Central Arizona | Scott Van Keuren
• 6. From Recipe to Identity: Exploring Zuni Glaze Ware Communities of Practice | Deborah L. Huntley
• 7. The Decline of Zuni Glaze Ware Production in the Tumultuous Fifteenth Century | Gregson Schachner
• 8. Glaze Wares and Regional Social Relationships on the Rio Alamosa | Toni S. Laumbach
• 9. Black-on-White to Glaze-on-Red: The Adoption of Glaze Technology in the Central Rio Grande Valley | Suzanne L. Eckert
• 10. Inferring Social Interactions from Pottery Recipes: Rio Grande Glaze Paint Composition and Cultural Transmission | Cynthia L. Herhahn
• 11. Lead, Paint, and Pots: Rio Grande Intercommunity Dynamics from a Glaze Ware Perspective | Kit Nelson and Judith A. Habicht-Mauche
• 12. Rio Grande Glaze Ware Technology and Production: Historic Expediency | Patricia Capone
• 13. Directionality and Exclusivity of Plains-Pueblo Exchange during the Protohistoric Period, AD 1450-1700 | Kathryn Leonard
• 14. Rio Grande Glaze Paint Ware in Southwestern Archaeology | Linda S. Cordell
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Contributors
• About the Editors
• Index